May 5th, 2012 is the Kentucky Derby, and After the Races is holding its very first Derby party!

Like last time, the event will be held at Barnaby’s in West Chester, PA. For those who were at our last event, this will be held in a larger space, with better drinks and food. There will be an open bar that includes ANY type of beer available (draft, tap, bottles, etc), as well as house wines, well liquor, as well as MINT JULEPS!

Bring your best Derby hat as we will be having several hat contests! Also come prepared to wager on your best Derby pick, compete for raffles, and have a great time sharing the Derby experience with a group of fellow Thoroughbred enthusiasts. This is a day to celebrate the horse that is an OTTB. They come from high trainers and low and have the biggest hearts of all horses in this writer’s opinion.

Tickets for the event will cost $60 and you will be given free raffle tickets for EVERY item you bring with you to donate to our cause. We are looking for small items, from leftover medications (in date, please), first aid supplies, trash bags, halters, leads, to saddle pads. They can be gently used or new and all items will be used and appreciated by our 12 horses in rehab and retraining.

To order tickets and for more information, click here!

Along with Rocky we had long-timer Elector (a.k.a. “Lexi”) who was with us for 7 months recovering from a broken sesamoid. Lexi went on to live with Bob and Shawn and their family mere miles from our new location in Nottingham. There he is being spoiled and loved on and they hope he will be a lifelong companion and riding horse for their family.

We also found homes for Sue the Attorney and Call Me Lonesome. Sue the Attorney went to live with Justyne in Red Lion, PA where she was intended to be Justyne’s new mount but ended up getting “stolen” by Justyne’s husband Dave! Dave plans to enjoy her both on trails and as a paper chase mount and Justyne has since gone on to adopt another OTTB for herself!  Call Me Lonesome was only with us briefly and went to live with new owner Meg in Bucks County where he will hopefully become her next dressage mount.

As I write this we are in February and have already found homes for: Our Shady Lady, Jesdarand, Peaceful Meadow, and Long Island Duck. Shade recently moved to North Carolina with new owner Kimberly where she will be a hunter-jumper and hopefully lifelong riding partner Kimberly will share countless memories with. Jesdarand moved to Maryland with new owner Susannah who is spoiling her and loving her to pieces. Jesdarand will be a pleasure mount and hopefully lifelong buddy for Susannah who hopes to start taking lessons with her in the new future. Peaceful Meadow was never on our farm, but we helped a local Steeplechase trainer place her with Justyne (who also has Sue the Attorney), and Long Island Duck just left for Dover, PA where he will be in the loving care of Haley and her family and friends!

Also at this moment we have C’est la Fleet and Flight to Eden both pending adoption as well as serious interest in Singapore Girl. Please keep them all in mind as they head to their new homes and thank you for your continued support! 

You can read Sun Hunter’s story at the NTRA website.

Way to go, Sunny!

http://www.ntraaftercare.com/node/176

If you would like to help us in our move and as we settle in we have updated our wishlist on the “How to Help” page but items that are most needed include shelves/hooks for organizing and a 4-wheeler or small ATV. Donations can be made and assigned to these as well!

November was an exciting month for us with four horses adopted. Contesa and Muskwa went to a great home in NC where Contesa will be used for breeding and Muskwa for lessons. Shade went to a great home where she will be used for trail riding and camping trips and all kinds of fun adventures, and Silky was adopted by a 12 year old who hopes to use her in western games and riding!

We have several nice horses who have come to us recently. Several 3 year old fillies who are beautiful, a 3 year old grey gelding, and a 6 year old chestnut gelding all of which have no limitations. We also acquired a sweet older gelding who is 9 years old and recovering from an old bowed tendon.

All in all we’re hoping December will be another great month. Please consider us if thinking about contributing in honor of a friend or family member for the holidays. But most of all consider us if you are looking for your next horse or know someone who is looking. OTTBs are beautiful, versatile riding partners with a work ethic that is unsurpassed by any other. And these guys are in need of great homes!

The event was a huge success and in a matter of a few hours we were able to raise nearly $2,700 with nearly 70 attendees. This money is going to vet bills for the horses who are in more intensive rehab programs, as well as the day to day needs. It will pay for one month’s entire supply of grain and hay as well! Job very well done!

Adoptions have also been active this month, with three horses being adopted so far this month including Indy Knight, Our Shady Lady, and Dazzling Reality. Indy and “Houdini” are doing great in their new homes and Shade is patiently awaiting transport to her new farm and they could not be going to better people. Indy will be a trail horse and riding partner. Dazzling Reality will be a trail and pleasure mount, and Shade will be used in English lessons and learn to ride in parades and other exciting events at Valley Forge Military Academy where her new owner and rider attends school.

Also, after several months borrowing a horse trailer from a board member, we finally acquired one of our own. The 1994 Glick horse trailer was practically given to us by Karen and Jay in Pottstown and is a godsend. The trailer is in good shape and we are very happy to have it. We are currently looking for someone who does bodywork to repaint it in exchange for a logo on the horse trailer. Please contact us if interested.

Thank you all again. We still have many great horses in need of homes and hope to have some more good news soon!

Bonnie

We also recently adopted out Sprig of Lilac who went to Amy in New Jersey. Sprig will enjoy a life of trail rides, paper chases, hunter paces, and just FUN with her new rider! After all the hard work this mare put in at the track and then having to change hands so many times since, it is truly appropriate for her to be in such an amazing home.

We have several new horses that are worth looking at. If you are looking for a competitive horse, check out any of our new guys: Our Shady Lady, Syllogism, Dazzling Reality, or Muskwa. Though if you ask me, Our Shady Lady and Syllogism are the two to consider if you’re in it for the ribbons! If you just want a FUN ride you can take out on the trails or trailer to state parks with, think about Indy Knight or one of our other geldings.

These horses need homes. Share our website and Facebook page with your friends, write a recommendation (ask me how), or come by and visit when you get the chance!

Having lived in North Carolina, I was familiar with hurricane preparedness for horses. In North Carolina many will go so far as to spray paint their phone numbers on their horses if they anticipate being in the direct path of a hurricane. Thankfully, we did not anticipate that being a great concern.

The barn we use as our main barn for After the Races is already a little rough around the edges. The horses enjoy it and it more than adequately meets our needs, but perched on top of its hill with an already leaky roof, I was not about to trust it if there was a possibility of sustained winds greater than 50 mph with gusts as high as 60 or 70 mph. As circumstances have it, there is another large barn on the property that is a stone bank barn, built deep into a hill. This barn has 12 stalls and is incredibly sturdy, so we bedded down ten stalls, brought over a smattering of emergency supplies (first aid supplies, medications mostly), day to day items and enough grain and hay to get us by for a few days should the other barn be damaged badly. It took a little elbow grease and a crew of four people to whip it into shape, but we had our backup facility ready to go.

Despite having such a great stone barn, there are several horses on the property that are not rescues who board in our pastures. Their pastures are on sloping hills with a HUGE run-in shelter built into the bottom of the hill. I was not worried about these horses surviving the storm (in fact, in NC, we typically turn horses out for big storms such as these as we don’t often have sturdy stone barns to rely on), but I was worried about the fences. It is common to lose trees or large limbs during our average summer storm. With a hurricane potentially coming, we decided to take a little more action.  We fitted each horse with a leather halter. Sturdier than your typical break-away halter, but still capable of breaking should a horse get caught, and we fastened ID tags on each halter with the horse’s name along with our address and phone number. Most of our neighbors are pretty horse friendly, and we thought this would help them find their way home more quickly should they escape through downed fencing.

While as of Saturday morning the hurricane appeared to be weakening, I continued with our decision to move the race horses into the stone barn. If nothing else I felt it would give me peace of mind throughout the storm, and if we waited until the storm hit to see how bad it was, it would be too late. In two groups we walked all 9 of our race horses across the farm (7 of these are current horses in the program, 2 were horses adopted through AtR that continue to board here), and tucked them in.

The horses settled in pretty quickly, enjoying their roomy stalls and large piles of hay we stocked them each with and we felt pretty good about how things looked. Heading toward Philly soon after tucking horses in (my grandfather recently passed and family was gathering that afternoon to look at photos and exchange memories), I planned to be back before the storm rolled in.  In the meantime, one of our previous adopters volunteered to watch the farm and be there to accept our newest horse from the track (yes, they delivered her the day of the hurricane!).

At 3PM I received a message from the farm that all was well, and that the new horse had arrived safely. Jayburger, the horse I personally adopted, was laying down according to the message, but there was no mention of other unusual behavior at the time. When we got home to the farm around 6:00 PM I immediately went to Jayburger’s stall, sensing something was up, and found him laying down still. I quickly made note of his symptoms. Droopy, depressed expression, no interest in hay or grain, his water buckets had not been touched since moving into the barn. There was, however, fresh manure in the stall. We got him onto his feet to observe him and he stretched his back legs repeatedly and then tried to lay down again. I thought, great! Just like a horse to colic during a storm!

With a few extra hands at the barn, David offered to start walking Jayburger while I called the vet and went to grab some Banamine. It started to rain on my way to the house to get the medication so I grabbed and donned a rain suit and rubber boots, knowing it was only going to get worse.  Back at the barn, I dosed Jayburger with a 1000 lbs dose of Banamine and took over the hand walking outside. We did laps around the courtyard in the stone barn for a while, but he was dragging behind pretty badly.  I decided to go for a longer walk, hoping the change in scenery would get him moving a little better. It did, but not much. We walked down the driveway and around the farm, back and forth and back again, until 7PM when the vet arrived. Back in the barn, soaking wet, we watched as Jayburger was tubed and given electrolytes. He was also running a fever which conflicted with most types of colic. Erring on the side of caution, Tony (the vet) suggested we treat both symptoms. After pumping water and electrolytes in, he also hit him with some antibiotics and Bute and sent us walking again.

By now it was nearing 8PM. James and David jumped in the truck to run to Tractor Supply to get wheat bran for a mash for Jayburger’s dinner and I went back to trekking around the farm. The winds were picking up as well as the rain, and it was pitch black as we resumed walking. Through the dark we walked, both our heads bowed to the rain, for another 30 minutes. Despite the noise and darkness and general unpleasant atmosphere, Jayburger obediently plodded along, lead rope sagging between us loosely.

By the time we returned to the barn, I put him in his stall with one flake of hay and did another check on the other horses in the barn before returning to observe and towel dry Jayburger. He was interested in his hay this time, and by the time I’d almost gotten him dry again the boys returned with bran, which I quickly used to whip up a warm mash (complete with carrots and molasses) which Jayburger seemed pretty interested in.

Between a colicky horse and 9 other race horses in a strange barn for the night, the night was spent with hourly trips to the barn. Thankfully, despite the storm brewing outside, all was quiet and peaceful in the barn. Once the doors shut behind you, all that could be heard was munching and the occasional shuffle of hooves as someone adjusted their positions. As the night progressed it became clear Jayburger was feeling better and better with each check, and around 2AM we finally took some time to sleep.

When morning dawned it was clear the hurricane was not going to be anywhere near as strong as originally predicted. Power was out briefly, but returned later in the afternoon, and there was only minimal damage to one small section of fence. The horses were happy to go back out in the evening, running a few laps initially before settling right back in to grass, grass, and more grass.

Would they have been okay in their normal barn for the night? Probably. But was it worth the risk? I don’t think so. Sometimes it’s almost a little disappointing to see all your hard work preparing for what could be a disastrous event be for naught. But when it comes to betting against Mother Nature, it really is not worth the risk.  You have to prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. Thankfully, this time we got just about the best we could have hoped for.

Keep checking back to find out more soon!

The road to recovery for these race horses can often be long and painful, for both them and the humans who care for them. We have had SEVERAL success stories, horses who have recovered from fractured ankles and condylar fractures, bowed tendons, and joints with fragments in them. Many of these harder cases start with anywhere from 30 to 90 days of complete stall rest. What does this mean? It means nearly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for months on end standing in their stalls. And this is only the start.

While this may sound cruel, these horses are already accustomed to being confined to their stall most of the day as this is routine at the race track, and this makes our job just a little bit easier. It certainly is not ideal for any horse, but stall rest is needed for bones to set and tendons to heal. We try to break up their monotony as well as we can, providing treats and toys in their stalls, grooming, bathing (when possible), and lots and lots of love. Often we are in with them several times a day bandaging their legs or administering medication and treatment.

After stall rest comes hand walking for most horses. The first week of hand walking can be exciting! These horses have been cooped up for so long, many of them are predictably thrilled to be out in the big wide world again which can result in horses attempting to leap and jump for joy. Often we mitigate this excitement with some slight sedatives to keep horses from hurting themselves or their handlers while they readjust to life outside the barn. Once they settle in to their new routine of walking, we can all start looking forward to the walks without worrying about too much silliness.

After hand walking we often start the horses on limited turn out, which means turning them out for brief periods of time in a very small paddock. We do this so they can start stretching their legs and getting some of that energy out without having the room to get up too much speed or do anything strenuous prematurely. After this, they generally graduate to turn-out with the herd and then are hopefully home free.

Now, consider that for every horse we have that is sound and ready to adopt, we have one or even two horses on stall rest or in some stage of rehabilitation. Rehabbing these horses is expensive, labor intense, and VERY rewarding. However, it can be heartbreaking as well. When we have a bad case, we often do not publicize the horse right away on either our website or Facebook. The reason being that if the horse has a bad day or a setback, it is hard enough on the volunteers and staff of After the Races who see and work with these horses every day. We are with them and fall in love with them a little more every day.

Sometimes the rehabilitation schedule given to us by the track is not adequate or does not take into consideration aspects of the injury that even they were unaware of. More than once we have gotten a horse with one injury to treat and end up finding another (sometimes more serious) injury that requires attention as well. Our vet is out to the farm between two and three times a month doing x-rays and evaluating our horses in rehab and sometimes their rehabilitation schedule is extended or changed entirely from what we initially expected.

Here at After the Races, we turn no horses away. We get horses who would have been euthanized at the track, and we get horses that we are told from the beginning may not get better no matter what we try, but this is the key: we try. Unfortunately, not every horse can be saved or every injury mended, but we give every horse a fighting chance. All this being said, I believe the horses who are recovering deserve more attention (more mention) on our Facebook page and website. Sometimes we need help or additional funds to reach our goal of rehabilitating these horses. Sometimes we just need support. A kind word goes a long way. Someone even donating an hour of their time to groom and love on one of these guys would brighten their day.

I just hope that our supporters are not disheartened when they hear of these injuries, potential setbacks, or even should there come a time when we have to make a decision regarding how humane it is to keep a horse going. If you pray, pray for the speedy recovery of these amazing animals. If you can afford it, donate even $10 or $50 when you can and know it goes to help pay for x-rays and medications that are desperately needed. And if you have the time, stop by and give someone a carrot or a pat. Rehabilitating these horses is not a one man job. They need everyone. They need you.

Any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. I look forward to sharing stories of our horses in rehab soon.